Starting Over
by ReddWriter
Summary: Tampering with the unknown has never led to anything good and this time was not an exception. Sonja knew that the creature would be trouble from the start, that they should have destroyed it and continued with all of the other freaky experiments they were conducting. Her worries went unanswered. Money has always been the root of all evil, but greed results in irreversible madness.


**I do not own Predator or Alien. As much as it saddens me it is unfortunately true. The OC's are mine.**

**This is a one-shot about Sonja, Jay, and C'bra. A few of you have been asking how they got on the ship and what their background story is so I decided to give it to you in this one-shot. I hope you enjoy. **

**As always if you find any mistakes just let me know and i'll fix them as soon as I can. Happy Reading.**

* * *

Jay sat in the small dark space, trying to control her breathing. It was not an easy feat. She was tired and frightened. Those things were everywhere and no matter where she went she wasn't able to shake them. As a desperate resort her mother had shoved her into the small space and told her to stay there until she returned. Jay knew that protesting was futile. Her mother was as stubborn as an ox.

It was hard to hear from her small space. Due mostly in part to heavy breathing that she couldn't seem to get under control. Jay's chest was heaving from all the running she had done. Add that with fear of the black creatures that had been chasing them, and she was actually shocked that she hadn't had a heart attack.

They were hideous creatures. Her only way of describing them was to compare them to scorpions, but they were much larger. Seeing them alone was enough to scare her, what absolutely horrified her was when an inner mouth seemed to project from its outer mouth out at her. She had all but screamed and ran as fast as she could. That had been a mistake.

Her cries of terror had caught the attention of many others and she was sure that she was done for. Jay had been separated from her mother and hadn't the slightest idea where she was or where she was going. Just when she thought they would snatch her up and have her as their latest meal, she was pulled into a room, and the door was shut and wedged closed behind her.

It had been her mother and one of her coworkers, Randall that had saved her, but Jay knew they couldn't stay there. The Uglies were beating on the door. Ramming it, she could only assume with their bodies, as hard at they could. She shook slightly as she backed behind her mother.

Randall had been frantically looking for a way to get them out. There was a door on the other side of the room, but there were piles of things in front of it. Quickly, Jay and Sonja followed Randall to the door as he began to move a few things. He peered through the open glass. When he saw nothing, the three of them went about quickly moving the things out of the way.

Jay was shaking so badly that she feared she was more of a hindrance than a help. Finally they were able to get everything out of the way and not a moment too late. As the opposite door burst in they had made their way out of the other one.

She held tight to her mother's hand as they raced down the hallway, Randall right behind him. The Uglies, Jay was sure, not far behind him. They came to a part of the building that Jay was unfamiliar with. She had not been allowed this far before, due to the fact that this was where the scientist conducted their experiments. Now she wished they hadn't of been, because one of them had gone extremely wrong.

It was there, that Sonja had placed her daughter in the dark space and told her stay until she returned for her. She wasn't to make a sound and she wasn't to move. Not until her mother came back for her.

Sitting now in the darkened place, Jay had lost all sense of time. She wasn't sure how long she'd been there. Time had stopped having meaning when those things began to pick off the residents of the facility one by one. She didn't suspect that there were a lot of them. She had only seen four, but that was four too many.

Jay stayed close to the opening at first, that way she could see her mother when she came back for her, but she suspected that was a bad idea. It just made her easier for the Uglies to see if they happened to pass by, so she scooted back further into her hiding place. She knew she could go even further and that the small passage would possibly lead her to another part of the building, but she didn't want to risk it. She was too frightened. The fear of the unknown kept her rooted in place.

Worry dominated her brow as more time went by and her mother still had not returned. All was quiet and Jay didn't like that. She had this feeling deep inside, the calm before the storm. She knew something was about to happen and as frighten as she had been of venturing into the unknown, she would much rather take her chances now, than be caught in the tornado of bad that was about to happen. Jay was sure if she stayed to witness it, she would not end up in Oz. This storm would do a lot of harm and there would be no way back to Kansas.

It was pitch dark and Jay had no way of seeing what was in front of her so she relied on her other senses. Slow and as steady as her shaking arms and legs would carry her, she made her way deeper into the tunnel. Finally she saw a light off in the distance. She made her way almost to the end, close enough to look out. She gazed around and didn't see the Uglies, but what she saw was enough to have her mouth dropping.

At thirteen, Jay knew that she hadn't seen everything in her young life, but what she did know was that the creatures contained in the testing chambers were not of this world. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She had known her mother worked for some strange people, but this was too much. Jay could only imagine what else had gone on here and the images were not pretty.

* * *

Her legs shook as she ran, and she was exhausted. Her shoulder screamed in pain, but she wouldn't stop. Sonja was determined to get back to Jay. She regretted leaving her there, but she didn't feel as if she had much of a choice at the time. Those things were after them and she didn't want her daughter hurt.

Once she'd left Jay, she and Randall had made a dash for one of the labs. Randall had been sure there would be something in there that could help them ward off the creatures chasing them, but there hadn't been. The only thing that waited for them was an ambush. They'd run as fast as they could and had escaped for a moment.

Sonja remembered the day that the creature came into the facility. It had only been one, as well and eight slimy eggs. She had been skeptical of the creature from the beginning. It was much too rowdy and hard to handle. She had advised them to just kill it, but none of them would hear of it. It was, after all, there biggest discovery yet. It would also turn out to be their biggest tragedy.

Randall had been so adamant about studying it, discovering what made it tick. He was head researcher and what he said went, even when Sonja knew that it was dangerous. Randall had chosen to test on the animal, pushing it to its limits and sometimes beyond, and he had paid for it with his life.

Sonja's shoulder demanded that she slow down. It jarred with each step that she took, but she wouldn't stop. She had to reach her baby. Her child was more important than some injury, but she couldn't deny the pain that she felt.

When she reached the place where she'd stashed Jay her heart ached. As she reached inside her hand came into contact with nothing but air. She whispered her daughter's name, but got no reply. Sonja began to panic before telling herself that everything was okay. She knew where the tunnel led and quickly made her way there.

Entering the room where the experiments were held, Sonja found Jay peering intently at one of them. It was the most recent they had gotten in. It had twelve legs with a body shaped like a buffalo. Its head resembled that of a fox. Its mouth was rowed with more teeth than an alligator and it housed seven eyes, each a different color. During experiments they had discovered that it did not walk. It hopped like a frog and on a few occasions small wings, the size of a crow's sprang forth to carry it further. The creature was four feet tall, but Sonja had never underestimated it.

Sonja was silent as she made her way to her daughter, placing her hand on Jay's shoulder. The young girl gasped and jumped with a start, but when she saw it was her mother, she immediately flung herself into her arms. Holding in a gasp of pain was no easy feat as she embraced her daughter, but Sonja didn't want to scare her.

"We have to get out of here." Sonja stated, kissing the top of Jay's head. They weren't far from the emergency exits and if they were lucky one of the jeeps would still be in tact.

"Those things will get us." Jay whispered close to tears. She held her mother tighter and squeezed her eyes shut. She missed her life before all of this, missed her father. If he was still alive they would have never even stepped foot into this place.

"We'll make it baby." Sonja responded. She was sure they would. Jay was her reason, the only family that either of them had left was each other and she wasn't about to let that change.

Sonja released her daughter from her embrace and took her hand. She led her back the way she had come, stopping, peering through the glass in the door. When she was satisfied that the coast was all clear, they made their way back into the hall. They crept down it slowly until it branched off. Stopping, Sonja peered around the corner and her breath caught. Those things were there, blocking their route. They would be forced to take the long way, but they still had to pass in front of them.

A finger to the lips was her communication to Jay and the young girl nodded as she gripped her mother's hand tighter. Sonja peered around the corner again, but the creatures were gone. She didn't plan on staying and figuring out where they went either. With Jay's hand firmly in hers she took off running down the hallway.

Again her shoulder protested, and her ribs seemed to ache. She'd been knocked around enough and if they weren't broken or fractured, Sonja knew they were badly bruised. She didn't let this slow them down. She was determined to get Jay to safety. She felt an overwhelming sense of guilt that her daughter was in this situation.

Sonja had known upon joining Ripley-Bishop research that what they did was not common, but she had needed a way to support her and Jay and pay off their debts after her husband lost an early battle with lung cancer. Her expertise had been dissection in the science field and her new team had welcomed her with open arms.

So caught up in her thoughts, Sonja didn't see the black tail coming her way. She was only made aware when the impact knocked her onto her ass; unfortunately she took Jay down with her. The ugly creature hissed and Sonja grabbed the closet thing to her, which happened to be a fire extinguisher, as a weapon. She sprayed it in the creatures face causing it to shriek. Knowing that noise would only bring others, she swung with all of her might and bashed it in the side of the face.

The action proved positive for their situation, but not for her already aching shoulder, though she had little time to actually think about it. She shook Jay who laid beside her in an attempt to get her up. Sonja could see the easy rise and fall of her chest, so she knew she was indeed still alive.

Shaking the young girl proved futile and Sonja was soon trying to hoist her unconscious body onto her shoulder. It had been a while since she'd carried her daughter, but she was grateful for her petite frame. It was a battle, but she soon had her over her good shoulder and walking down the hall as fast as she could. She had almost made it to the end of the hall when she heard hissing behind her.

Not daring to look back, Sonja picked her pace as much as possible. Snatching the door open, she was met with a rather large body blocking her entrance, but what entranced her was the gun housed on its shoulder. She made to back out of the room, but a reptilian hand wrapped around her wrist and pulled her into the room behind him as a blast of blue energy flew from the weapon mounted on its shoulder. Sonja looked around it to see the ugly creature painted along the walls.

She backed away slowly as the humanoid turned to face her. The mask it wore was expressionless. Sonja had seen the mask before, or rather one like it, but they hadn't been able to figure out who it belonged to or how it worked. She now knew that like everything else that went on at Ripley-Bishop, the mask was out of this world.

* * *

C'bra studied the ooman in front of him. She was injured. Her shoulder, he suspected had seen the end of a hard meats tail, while her ribs were slightly fractured. She had other injuries, but those were the worst. He could find no major, visible injuries on the one she carried as he circled them. She did have a few nicks and cuts, but that was primarily it.

The older female stiffened as he checked them. C'bra could not blame her. She had gone through enough in the last ten hours to be skeptical of anything she was not familiar with. He made an attempt to reach for the young ooman on her shoulder, but even injured the older female threw her arm over the other's back and stepped away from him.

He had seen this behavior before and C'bra held his hands up in an ooman sign of surrender. Much like with his species you did not come between a bearer and her pup. Just as she began to relax with the distance that had been put between them, a hiss drew his attention. Ushering the female to a corner of the room with her pup, he made a gesture for her to stay put.

He made his way out of the small room he had occupied to treat a wound he'd gotten from one of the hard meat he'd eliminated earlier. Upon arrival he had counted nine. Already, he had killed six. C'bra had not expected to find numerous hard meats. He had not thought the oomans would be so careless. He had thought wrong.

Originally, when he had been given this detail, it was to go in, retrieve the one hard meat that they had and the eggs. His clan had been informed that there was a group of humans conducting research and experiments on creatures that were foreign to them. They didn't know what they were getting into, and to preserve their planet for them, his clan had decided to take action and put a stop to it. However, it appeared that he had arrived too late.

C'bra caught movement to his left and had his target in his sights. He fired, and disposed of the hard meat. Seven down, two to go. He made his way back into the room and found the ooman female sitting there with her pup cradle in her lap. He crouched down beside them and she stiffened.

"Come." He stated, her native tongue being his language of choice.

"Why would I go anywhere with you?" She was trying to be brave, but he could hear the tremble in her voice.

"If you do not, you will die." C'bra told her. He knew his words may have been a bit harsh and too straight forward, but he was telling the truth. If the hard meat did not get them both, then the bomb he would detonate upon leaving would and he did not want that on his hands, but he had to make sure everything that had been discovered here was destroyed.

As the ooman female rose, C'bra made another move to take the pup from her. This time she allowed him to. He led the way out of the room they'd been in and in the direction of an exit. The way he had gotten in. The ooman female stopped him.

"We can't go that way. It was starting to flood when I last left it."

C'bra nodded and turned, following the female as she led them in the opposite direction. She turned back to look at him every couple of seconds and C'bra was sure that it was to check on her pup. He watched her take a step around a corner only to back up abruptly and slam into him.

The female threw her hand over her mouth in an attempt, C'bra figured, to silence her groan of pain. He could hear the distinctive sound of hard meat hissing. He pulled her behind him and she slid down the wall. Lowering the pup, he allowed the female to cradle the young girls head in her lap.

When C'bra stepped around the corner his gun was poised and ready to fire, but there was no target in sight. Here in lied the problem. He took predatory steps as he began to scan the walls and ceiling above him. He didn't see the black tail behind him. It pierced through his right shoulder and C'bra let out a roar, one of frustration at being taken off guard more so than pain.

C'bra turned around quickly and grabbed the damn thing by its tail. He used all his strength to smash it into one wall and then the other before slamming it into the ground with enough force to result in a small crater. He then tossed it down the hall. As it sailed through the air, C'bra locked on and shot it with his shoulder cannon, painting the walls that began to corrode from the animal's acidic blood.

* * *

Sonja peered around the corner in time to see the man-like creature toss the Black Bastard, as she had non too affectionately named him, into the air, shooting him to hell mid fall. She was amazed for a moment, lost in what she had just seen as if she had been watching an Olympic sport and that was exactly what she was reminded of. She had only watched the Skeet shooting event of the games once, but she knew if it had been this entertaining she would have watched it more often.

As she shifted her body, Sonja heard a slight groan. She looked down at Jay and watched as the young girl's eyes fluttered open. Helping her daughter sit up, Sonja intently checked the back of her head for any swelling or lumps. When her fingers grazed over one, Jay whimpered in pain and pulled away from her.

Sonja started to apologize, but stopped mid-sentence when she noticed that Jay's eyes had become the size of saucers and there was nothing but pure terror in them. She glanced over her shoulder quickly to see that it was only the large creature. Her attention went back to her daughter who had begun sliding away from the creature.

"It's alright Baby Girl. He's not going to hurt us." Sonja spoke, but even as the words left her mouth she wasn't sure if she was lying to her child or not.

Yes, the creature had saved them, twice now, but he could be a sadist of some sort. He could enjoy watching them scared out their minds, pretending to save them only to kill them in the worse possible way himself. It could have been that way, but Sonja knew deep down that it wasn't. This creature, this male was genuinely trying to help them. She had always been a good judge of character; and while her instincts were telling her that this unknown being was a killer, she knew he would not harm them.

Sonja could see why her daughter was frightened. He stood, she was going to guess, at least eight feet tall. His hulking frame was muscular, and though she thought it was wrong to say such a thing, he was a fine specimen. His skin was the oddest thing that she'd seen. Odd in a sense of…normal, since everything in her life since starting to work for Ripley-Bishop was overly strange.

His skin was a collage of colors. He was a light colored brown, speckled with the most beautiful green that Sonja had ever seen. From his chest down to where is loin cloth began he was a creamy white. The combination of colors would not have been something she would have ever thought to put together, but they worked on him.

Tresses, that resembled dreadlocks to Sonja, grew from his head. They were silky and smooth. They housed a few different rings on each one. Her eyes continued to skim over him before resting on his shoulder. There was a bright green liquid covering his shoulder, almost a neon green, but the metallic smell was unmistakable. Sonja would know it anywhere…blood. He had been hurt, but there he stood in all of his overbearing prowess as if the injury did not phase him.

Her attention turned back to Jay and Sonja found her daughter staring up at the massive creature with bewilderment and utter shock. All the time she had spent working here, she hadn't allowed her daughter to see half of the things that came through the doors. Now, in a sort span of time she had seen several and Sonja knew that Jay was overwhelmed.

"We must go." The male informed them and Sonja couldn't help but comparing his voice to the smooth melodic sound of Barry White's. It was so deep and gravely that she knew no human's voice would ever be able to reach its depths, though Barry's came close.

Sonja used the wall to help herself stand before holding out her hand to Jay. The young girl seemed to be frozen in place for a moment before blinking out of whatever reverie she had been in and taking her mother's hand. She was nearly glued to her mother's side, her eyes never leaving the foreign creature. Squeezing her daughter's hand reassuringly, Sonja once again began to lead the way to the exit on the far side of the building. They were half way there and all she could do was pray that they made it.

The exit doors came into sight and Sonja breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, it was premature. There was a growl behind them. As she looked back she saw the male pushing himself up from the floor. She didn't see anything behind him, so she began to search the walls. Jaylee's scream had Sonja whipping around to see a Black Bastard in front of them.

She pulled her daughter back by the arm and they both fell to the floor just as the damn things inner mouth rocket out. Frightened, didn't come close to what Sonja was feeling. She was in full blown panic mode, but not for herself, for her daughter. Jaylee hadn't had the misfortune of being so close to one of those things until that very moment and Sonja could tell the young girl was paralyzed with fear.

Before the creature could make another move, the massive male slammed into it sending it flying into the wall. Sonja got to her feet, pulling her daughter up as well and they ducked into a hallway. She wondered briefly why he didn't just shoot it as he had the other one. Her question was answered when she saw the gun, which was once mounted on his shoulder, lying across the hall.

* * *

Jay could feel every fiber of her being trembling and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Terror had overtaken her, gripped her so tight that she felt as if she was being crushed. She tried to steady her breathing, but she couldn't. She wondered why that was until she realized that she was hyperventilating.

As growls and screeching filled her ears, it made her breathing even more complicated. Jay felt as if a knife had been plunged down her throat at the same time as someone tied a noose around her neck and pulled it tight. She could faintly hear her mother talking to her, trying to calm her, but her soothing words were drowned out by the hellacious sounds bouncing of each wall, echoing loudly in her ears.

She had never thought her life would be this way, something out of a horrid Sci-fi movie. Yet, there she was. Sitting on the floor of a science research facility building, while two things, more frightening than her mind could have ever conjured, fought each other in a hall mere feet away. Jay had never felt more trapped in her life. Closing her eyes, she tried to calm herself, while listening to her mother's mumbled words.

Her life hadn't always been like this. Living in a facility with what her mother called eccentric people, though Jay knew they were just plain crazy. She could recall a time when she lived in a house like a normal person with both of her parents. A time when her mother was a science teacher, not dissecting foreign things.

Life had been good then. Her father was still around and she was a normal little girl, but living at Ripley-Bishop for the last two years had turned her from the path of normal. Now it seemed that abnormal was all that could be found, but even Jay knew that was taking place now, was more than abnormal. It should have been unheard of. Even by this place's standards.

She missed the days where all she had to worry about was making decent grades in middle school and trying to convince her dad that playing in the rain wouldn't get her sick, though it had on many occasions. Jay even longed for the days where she would do something she wasn't supposed to and get into trouble. Being grounded even appealed to her at that moment over what was taking place. Those things were normal and she missed normal a hell of a lot.

When all the noise finally stopped, Jay's eyes shot open. There was nothing but silence, still and utter silence. From horror movies she had learned that silence was the prelude to screaming and running; the introduction to distress and terror. She prepared herself to do just that, to feel those things. Instead, when the large male rounded the corner, she found herself letting out a sigh of relief.

His massive frame was covered in more of the neon green substance, which Jay could only assume to be blood. He had more wounds of him, but he didn't seem to care. As she stared at him, the expressionless dark eyes of the mask peered back at her and Jay couldn't help wondering what he looked like. If he was as hideous as the things that had been tormenting them for the past fourteen or so hours.

She stood and helped her mother to her feet. Jay wasn't the biggest girl, in fact she was the tiniest. At thirteen years old there were some nine and ten year olds bigger and taller than she was, so when her mother began to sway, the young girl found herself crumbling under the weight. Had it not been for the massive creature, they would have both hit the floor.

As he supported her mother, Jay stuck close to her side as they made there way out of the building. She looked around her, and though everything was normal and how it always had been when she ventured outside, it seemed foreign to her. The last fourteen hours had felt like a life time. It was as if she were smelling fresh air for the first time in her life. Such a simple thing brought tears to her eyes. She had thought she'd get that privilege again.

Caught up in a simple beauty that she had once taken for granted, Jay didn't see that her mother and the male had moved on. She wasn't aware of where they were going, but her feet began to move. She was on autopilot as she took in her surroundings and thanked God for delivering them to safety.

Lost in thought or not, Jay had enough sense about herself to halt at the sight of what she knew was a spaceship. Science fiction had painted alien spaceships to be round vessels that spun in a circle as it flew with flashing lights. That was not the case.

As she gazed upon it, she knew that it could put any future aircraft that might arise to shame. Futuristic did not explain the depth in which technology ran through the vessel. It was purely out of this world. So advanced that something on it seemed to be tracking her and her mother's every move.

Jay felt as if she was moving forward, but she didn't see how that was possible. She hadn't given a command to her feet to move, but as she looked down she found she was putting one foot in front of the other. Pressure could be felt on her arm and she looked over to see the giant male had a reptilian hand on her and was pulling her, rather quickly, onto the ship.

Words of protest spewed from Jay's lips and she mildly wondered why her mother's wasn't doing the same. When she stopped struggling and actually looked up at the creature she found her mother lying over his shoulder, passed out. _When had that happened?_Jay wondered as she was pulled completely onto the ship. The ramp pulled up, closing the ship off and it immediately rose into the air.

She began to bang on the now closed ramp, but a vibration of large magnitude set her reeling back onto her butt. Getting up as quickly as she'd fallen, she ran to the nearest window to see that the section of land that once held Ripley-Bishop, along with hundreds of trees, wildlife, and who knows what else was gone. It had been wiped away and in its place laid burning flames licking at the sky, and a crater the seemed to hold the weight of Jay's shattered world.

Her time spent there had not been the most luxurious and the fact that she was the only child there made it even harder. She was left alone most of the time while her mother worked and that was something she hated. When her mother was off however, she spent every waking moment with Jay and those were the times that made having to live there bearable. The times she'd had with her mother.

Now, as she peered over at the large male he seemed to be checking something on his wrist. He then gazed out of another window at the wreckage and gave what Jay could only identify as an approving nod. He had destroyed the place she'd stayed for the past two years. The place she'd come to call her home. For that she was furious.

Without giving much thought to her safety or the fact that he was twice her height and five times her size, Jay stalked over to him and gave him a swift kick in the leg. She was going to aim for a much higher area, but made a last minute decision after coming to stand before him. That kick would have been hard to pull off. He made a sound from under his mask. Jay related it to the sound keys on a lap top made when stroked in a vigorously fast pace. It wasn't threatening, but she shied away when the expressionless eyes of the stoic mask peered down at her.

* * *

C'bra stared down at the little ooman as she backed away from him. She had kicked him, but he felt it no more than she would have felt the bite of an ooman ant. The young female was upset with him. That much was clear. He just couldn't decide what it was about. Yes, he had forced her aboard his ship, but she would have died had he not.

He cocked his head to the side regarding her as she squared her shoulders and stared back at him. All signs of backing away gone. He could feel the fear rolling off of her, but the determination as well. She wasn't going to let him scare her, and not that he would do so intentionally, C'bra admired that. He got down on one knee so he could be at her level.

"Did I offend you, Little One?" He questioned softly as not to scare her. Though he had no pups of his own, he was familiar with how to handle them. "If I did it was not my intentions." C'bra had been to earth several times in his years. He'd learned to fluently speak this ooman's tongue as well as others. Not to mention it was his bearers language.

"Why did you destroy our home?" The small female questioned, her voice choked on what C'bra could only attribute to the liquid oomans often allowed to seep from their eyes. He had only ever seen this when they were frightened.

"It was not safe to leave it standing." He informed her. He would tell her the truth. Though she was young she showed great promise of strength and C'bra decided that if she asked and he knew the answer, he would tell her. "Your kind," he began slowly, trying to choose the right words. "You aren't ready to have such knowledge."

The young girl looked at him skeptically. "What knowledge?"

"Some things are unknown to you and it should remain that way. It could only bring harm onto your planet."

"But all of my things were in that building." The pup whispered. "My belongings, pictures of my father, you destroyed them all. I have nothing left of him."

Understanding hit C'bra like a hard meat's tail. The small ooman was not upset with him destroying the building that housed unspeakable things, but she was angered at the fact that what remained of her sire was now lost to her. In all of his years doing these assignments he had never felt ashamed or upset by anything he'd done before, but this small pup was doing something to him.

The fact that she was upset at the lost of her things weighed heavily on C'bra's chest. He was upset with himself for not allowing them to retrieve any of there belongings. There had been no other threats, at least none that he could not handle had they gotten loose. He could have allowed them a few moments to gather some of their things, but he had not. Instead, he ushered them out of the door, onto his ship, and destroyed the building as soon as possible.

C'bra watched as the young female wiped her eyes, turning away from him to go sit beside her bearer. He would not ask her forgiveness, because he did not believe he deserved it, nor would he try to reason with her with words. He would give her what she was silently asking him for at that moment, silence and space. Silence starting at that moment. Space after he tended to the more severely wounded of the two females.

After he'd treated and bandaged the female's wounds C'bra sat at the control panel of his drop ship thinking. It had not been his intention to bring an ooman back with him let alone two. It still had not been his intention when he boarded them onto his safe to provide safety from the blast. Now, not taking them would dishonor him.

He had destroyed their home and leaving them with no place to go wasn't an option, but he wouldn't assume that they would accept coming with him without speaking to them first. A conversation that would have to wait until the older female came to. Until that time, C'bra decided he would land the ship.

* * *

Sonja awoke to a dull throbbing in her head. Her limbs felt numb and for a moment she began to panic when she moved them and felt nothing. She sat up as quickly as she possibly could, but the movements felt extremely slow to her. Holding her hand up in front of her face, Sonja wiggled her fingers. She continued the act until she got feeling back into them.

A warmth to her side caused Sonja to look over. She found Jay lying there in a deep sleep, a sleep that was well deserved. Easing her way off of the bed she was lying on, she proceeded to look around. Her surroundings were unfamiliar and she was puzzled for a moment, before realization dawned on her. Everything that had happened came flooding back.

There was a tightening in Sonja's gut. She couldn't go back to that place. It held too many bad memories. Already she could hear the screams of her co-workers, feel the guilt of what she had done. While running for her life, she hadn't allowed herself to think about it, but now it drowned her like a tidal wave. Disgusted is what she felt with herself, but she knew that she shouldn't. It was necessary for her safety, for that of her child.

A clicking sound drew her attention to a doorway, and what Sonja saw was enough to have her eyes becoming twice as large as usual. There stood the male that had saved both her and her daughter, but with a major difference. He was no longer wearing the expressionless mask.

She didn't know what to think. She knew that he was probably not the most attractive thing in the world. His skin texture alone had given that away, but she had not expected this. While his body was so like the anatomy of a human male, his face was no where close. He had two sets of mandibles around his mouth. A slight protruding where his nose should have been. Sonja had never been one to judge a person on the way that they looked, but if she was honest she would say he was down right ugly.

He had what she had deemed back in the eighties the Schwarzenegger complex. It was very similar to a "butter head" except for men. His body was enough to make a woman want to jump him, even with the texture of his skin and all of the different colors, but his face would scare you away and for a moment Sonja was scared. When she looked into his eyes, however, all she saw was warmth. The brilliant green seemed to speak to her and calm her down.

"How are you feeling?" He questioned and Sonja allowed the deep baritone of his voice to caress her body.

"I feel numb. I can barely feel any of my movements."

"It means its working."

Sonja was going to ask him what exactly he was talking about, but he turned and left the room. Without giving it a second thought, she followed him. They ended up in what Sonja could only guess was the control room. As he sat in the chair, she watched the muscles ripple in his back. When he spun in the chair to look at her, she was embarrassed to have been caught staring. Clearing her throat, she racked her brain for something to say.

"What's your name?" The question hadn't been one she was worried about in their earlier situation, but now that everything had calmed down she was curious.

"C'bra." Was the reply that greeted her and Sonja cocked her head to the side, studying him for a moment. When their gazes locked she felt as if a heat wave had wrapped around her body.

"Like the snake?" She finally inquired, clearing her throat. She wasn't sure if he knew what a snake was or not, but he knew how to speak English, though she wasn't sure whether it was his language or not either.

"Yes. What is your name?"

"I'm Sonja."

"And your pup?"

Sonja blinked at him a few times not sure she understood. It took her a moment to realize that he was talking about Jaylee. Pup, must have meant child where he was from.

"Jaylee, but I call her Jay." She then took a deep breath and asked the question that had been on her mind since she woke up. "Where are leaving us?

She watched as he tilted his head to the side and studied her. The intensity of his gaze sent a pulsing vibration through her. A flood of heat that she hadn't felt since her husband had died. It was at that moment that Sonja knew she'd been at Ripley-Bishop far too long. She was getting turned on by and alien. It was just too strange.

"I will not leave you anywhere." He finally spoke in that low timbre that Sonja was coming to enjoy. "I am taking you with me."

"Taking us where?"

"To my home ship." With that said he turned in his chair and started, what Sonja could only guess was a take off sequence of some sort. She crossed her arms over her chest at his blatant assumption that she was alright with going with him, though she didn't have anywhere else to go, and any reason to stay as long as she had Jaylee with her.

"Do I not have a say in this?" She questioned.

"I will not force you to come with me. I can leave you here." He informed her with his back still to her.

There was a tightening in Sonja's chest. She didn't want to stay there. When she'd questioned whether or not she had a choice she was simply being difficult. If he wanted to take them with him then she would not object. She just needed to know that he was not forcing them, that he would actually give them a choice. Her heart rate began to slow as she calmed down.

"We will go with you." The words were spoken barely above a whisper, but she was sure he had heard her.

* * *

All of her life Jay had been a pretty obedient child and hadn't given her parents much trouble, but she felt now was one of those times that she could flip out and no consequences should be issued. After all any normal person would have reacted the same way she did upon getting the news she had. In her situation they would have cursed, yelled, and spewed threats. All she had done was repeatedly asked her mother if she was crazy.

Imagine her surprise upon waking up to find that she was no longer in the bed that she had fallen asleep in, but a completely different one covered with much thicker furs. She'd ventured over to the window housed by the room and had seen nothing but pitch blackness. Slowly, she'd made her way out of the room, to find that she was still on an alien space ship, except this one was simply bigger.

The sound of voices had drawn her attention and she'd made her way in that direction. There she had seen her mother sitting at a table talking to the thing that had rescued them and to say it was hideous was the closet Jay could come to describing it. She hadn't been surprised; she'd actually suspected that he was. He, however, did not hold her attention long. No, what grabbed her ocular sense and gripped it tight was the balls of white flames that passed by the massive window in front of her.

She knew they were stars had she been on earth, but that was not the case. She was in a space ship, in the middle of outer space and from the looks of it, and her mother's cool demeanor, they were not being kidnapped.

Jay was having an outer body experience. She was watching this all take place from somewhere other than her body and she was hoping that at any moment she would wake up and it would have all been a dream. Running for her life, the destruction of the lab facility, being in the presence of an alien aboard his space ship, all of it would be just a part of a horrible nightmare.

Her mother's worried voice couldn't even pull Jay's attention from the window. She knew that her mom was standing right beside her, though she sounded far away. As if she was talking to Jay under water. The young girl mildly wondered if that was how her goldfish she had when she was eight felt. If so, then she definitely had to send a prayer to the little animal in pet heaven and apologize for all those times she'd talked to it for hours. The sound was overly annoying.

That had lasted a few moments before her mother was able to pull her from her underwater thoughts and back into the real world, which admittedly wasn't much different. That was how they ended up in their current state. All of them sitting around the table and Jay glaring at the being that she had learned was named C'bra.

This was his entire fault, well excluding the attack to those black things, which had been Randall, her mother's now dead, boss' fault. He was the reason her mother had decided to move them to outer space. Granted that they didn't have anywhere else to go, her mother should have still talked to her about it. It was her life to after all.

Jay knew that most of her anger was coming from the fact that, he'd blown up the building and all of the memories she had left of her father was gone. She felt it was unforgivable, so she wouldn't be accepting this move anytime soon. Nor would she be accepting him. One thing was for sure as she peered out of the window into space again, she was not in Kansas anymore.

* * *

It had taken a while for Sonja to get Jay to understand that her decision had been the best one for the two of them. Even after he daughter had stopped repeatedly asking her if she had lost her mind or gone insane, she had sat at the table and glared at C'bra for what felt like hours. After convincing her daughter to eat, which was another tough task, due to the fact that the food was foreign and Jay didn't trust it, Sonja had walked the young girl back to her room.

They sat and talked for a few hours and she urged Jaylee to see her side of things, to see that her decision had been made with both of their well beings in mind. Sonja knew that things would be different for them in this new place. She'd been talking to C'bra about it when her daughter had walked in, but she assured the young girl, that everything would be fine.

After hours of talking, Jay had finally relented and promised her mother that she would at least tolerate C'bra. She had made it clear however that she would not forgive him. He had informed Sonja of what he'd done and had apologized to her for it. While she was upset herself, she knew that her baby girls hurt ran deeper. Sonja still had something of her husband. His wedding band, but she would give it to her daughter to ease her aching heart. She just needed to ask C'bra for something to tie it to.

Once she was sure Jay was in a deep sleep, Sonja made her way back to where she'd left C'bra. He wasn't in there so she ventured through the ship. He'd shown her around upon boarding. She first checked the control room, but he wasn't there. She turned to go down the hall when she saw him coming out of the bathroom. He was in nothing more than, what Sonja assumed, he was using for a towel and the bulge behind the material definitely did something to her.

Her eyes slowly rose to look up at him and their eyes locked. She had been caught staring again, and this time at his most impressive body part. She cleared her throat in an attempt to get rid of the lump that had formed there.

"I was hoping we could finish our conversation." She was surprised she was able to push the words past her lips. When he nodded at her and beckoned her to follow him, Sonja felt her feet move without her brain having to tell them to.

She followed him into a bedroom that she knew was personally his. He motioned for her to have a seat on the bed. Sonja couldn't help but watch him as he crossed the room to grab, what looked like to her, another towel. When he turned with it in his hand, she knew that it was a loin cloth. He then did something she had not been expecting. He allowed his towel to fall right there in front of her.

Sonja's eyes were glued to his impressive member. To say that he was well endowed would be an understated. The creamy white color housed by his chest and stomach did not stop there as she had earlier assumed. It ran right down to his large member.

Though she knew she shouldn't have, Sonja couldn't help but to stare at it. It was similar to that of human males, except for the ridges that sat right on the tip. Where as human male testicles hung under there love organ externally. His were positioned in the same place, but looked to be internal, though they were not small either, by any measure.

A deep purr began to resonate through the room and it took a minute for Sonja's attention to move from C'bra lower half to his face. His brilliant green eyes had darkened to almost a forest green and the overwhelming smell of spring rain assaulted her. His face housed what she could only describe as a smirk and the sound that he was emitting only reminded her that it had been almost three years since she'd been intimate with a man.

The loin cloth held in his hand was tossed onto the bed and he took a step towards her. Sonja would give him this much, he was confident and she had the distinct feeling that shyness wasn't something he was familiar with. Each step towards her was predatory and she felt like a deer caught in head lights. She couldn't move, couldn't look away, she was frozen in place.

His purr became deeper and Sonja could have sworn it was physically caressing her. The sound danced around her body and cocooned her in a symphony of erotic promise. His eyes promised pleasure that she could never imagine and she believed him. She knew that whatever he had to offer would be out of this world. Those same eyes issued a challenge, dared her to look away, to make a move, to do anything.

Somewhere in the recesses of her mind she knew that this was unusual, that something had to be seriously wrong with her to become turned on by an alien, but the man was sexy, as long as she didn't pay too much attention to his face, if she just stared into those beautiful eyes.

Her common sense began to scream at her, reminding her that she wasn't the type of woman to just jump into bed with a man she'd just met. Human, alien, or otherwise. She wasn't sure how she did it, but she was able to put her hands up and find her voice.

"Stop."

He stopped alright. Right in front of her. Sonja's hands landed on his lower stomach an inch or two away from his hardening member that stared her in the face. Embarrassment washed over her and she turned her face to the side, avoiding eye contact as his member winked at her. Again she cleared her throat.

"Could you put your clothes on please?" She was barely able to get it out and for a moment she wasn't sure if he heard her or not, but as the seconds, which felt like hours to her ticked by, he grabbed his loin cloth and secured it on his waist.

* * *

The female was still very much aroused and it was playing havoc on C'bra's body. He wanted nothing more than to lay her on the bed and give her exactly what her body was asking him for. Instead he had respected her wish and covered himself. Sitting on the bed beside her he waited for her to start the conversation she wanted to have. Since she'd agreed to go back to his home ship with him all she'd been doing was asking questions and he was completely fine with that. The sound of her voice did things to his body that other females had to prompt from him.

"What will it be like?" She finally questioned.

C'bra clicked his mandibles a bit in slight annoyance. She'd asked him this same question three times now. He didn't know how many times he would have to answer her before she was satisfied with what he had to say. She must have sensed his frustration because she amended her question.

"I mean for Jay and I in particular. What will be expected of us? You explained the different caste and ranks. Where will my daughter and I fall?"

"With me." C'bra responded. He'd explained to her what type of warrior he was. He himself knew that in only a few years time not only himself, but the rest of his clan brothers as well, would be young honored warriors. "As my mate you will have the same privileges as I have."

"Mate?" The female questioned with a raised brow.

C'bra paused a moment trying to come up with the best way to explain it to her. He'd neglected that bit of information when he'd first told her he would be taking her and her pup back with him. Now seemed as good a time as any to tell her all about it. Deciding to test is luck, he reached out and pulled her into his lap. When she didn't immediately move or shy away, he took that as his queue.

"Yes, my mate. You'll be in my care and share my living quarters with me. I'll take care of you."

She was quiet for a moment as if to think about what he'd just said. He waited patiently and could almost see the wheels in her head turning. Absent mindedly he began to rub his hands up and down her sides. He'd tried to get her out of the ripped clothes when they first boarded the ship, but she had refused, saying that she had nothing else to put on. That had been perfectly fine with C'bra, but she wasn't too keen on the idea.

"Do you have a mate already?" She then asked him.

He knew why she was asking. When they had talked earlier, she'd asked about his family and he'd been honest with her. Telling her all about his brother, sire, and uncle. The latter of which had two different mates. How, was beyond C'bra since the old man was intolerable in his opinion. She wanted to know if he two had another mate.

"No, I do not and I will not." He told her honestly. He may have been young by his clans standards, but he wasn't by hers and he knew that. Choosing a life mate now, was something a young warrior would never think to do. At least not without knowing that becoming an honored was just around the corner, but there was something about this female. He wanted her and only her. "You will be my only one."

C'bra could feel her relax against him and he began to purr slightly, easing the rest of her worry away. He didn't want her to feel that way. There was no need. He would not take her back to abandon her, or split his time between her and another. His sire and bearer had raised him better than that.

It was true his sire had had other mates before C'bra's bearer. His older sisters were a testament to that. He'd settled down with his bearer however upon meeting her. Being an ooman, she had drilled into C'bra and his younger brother, Viper, that they would find no pleasure in meaningless relationships. He believed her, though it was not the way their species operated. Both brothers had agreed to appease their bearer. A final gift of promise to her.

"Like a wife?" She asked slowly. Her hesitance told him that she wasn't sure if he knew what a wife was. He was, however, all too familiar with it. His bearer had refused to ever be called a life mate and would let it be known when his sire slipped and said it. She'd made it clear she was his wife. Though the men in her life saw them as the same thing, she was set on the fact that they weren't.

"Yes, exactly like that and your pup shall be mine as well."

C'bra stared down at her as tears came to hers. He gently wiped them away and began purring again. It always had a calming affect on females and he would utilize it every moment he needed to in order to put her at ease.

"What will happen if you aren't around?" She then questioned. C'bra was confused by her question and voiced as much. "I mean when Jay and I are out by ourselves without you. You said yourself that all of your kind aren't as accepting of humans."

"They will not harm you unless they want me to rip their spines from their backs." C'bra stated. The thought of it alone making him angry. Calming himself he stared down at her. "There are codes in place that will prevent that. Those on my clan ship will not do anything to dishonor themselves. You will be fine."

* * *

Honor. The word rang through Sonja's ears as she nestled into his body. This should feel awkward. It shouldn't feel right, but it did. This male's presence was soothing her. He'd said his species were honored bound. He'd told her that same thing earlier as well. Honor and honesty went hand in hand to Sonja and at the moment she wasn't being honest. Not with him and not with herself.

She didn't know why she had done it, but before she could stop herself she had broken down and told him about what happened with Randall. The words just seemed to flow from her lips and she couldn't stop them, couldn't put a lasso around them and yank them back.

The man had been deranged. Fueled by scientific discovery and what it would have meant for Ripley-Bishop. He saw nothing other than dollar signs. Being at the hem of the find, he was bound to get a large sum of money just for himself as well. Yes, he had helped her get her baby girl away from those things, but he'd had other motives.

While she'd been trying to find a way to destroy them, to harm them, he had been trying to save those black bastards. He had let it slip that he was the reason their were so many of them. He'd purposely lured field researchers into the lap with lies and placed those damn pale yellow things on their faces. It was his fault that they were running free. Even after he'd seen what they were capable of, that they would kill without thought and couldn't be controlled, he still wanted to save them.

He'd claimed that they were too valuable and he was willing put her life and that her child in danger in order to try to preserve those monsters. A mission Sonja knew would get them all killed and she couldn't let that happen. She didn't know what had come over her, but as he was trying to find equipment to catch them, something that would be able to trap them and hold them, she took some acid that was sitting on the table and threw it in his face.

His screams drew the attention of those things. She could hear them shrieking as they grew nearer. Sonja did the only thing she could and fled and when Randall yelled her name, yelled for help as those things attacked him, she blocked them out. She closed her mind to his cries of pain and for that moment she became deaf.

Now, as she told C'bra everything, guilt over came her. She'd taken a human life. Those things may have finished him quickly, but Sonja knew that if they hadn't the acid would have killed him. It was slow burning. Randall had used it several times on the creatures that were brought in. He had tortured them with it. The innocent, docile ones, as well as the hostile ones, and it had become his down fall.

He began to purr again and Sonja could feel herself relaxing. There was something about the sound that just put her at ease, helped her push away all the bad memories. She looked up into his brilliant green ones and he wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I'm a murderer." She whispered. It was so low that she barely heard it herself.

"You are not. You did what was necessary to protect yourself, to protect our pup. There is no dishonor in that."

Sonja let out a soft sob then, burying her face in his chest. She hadn't known whether or not to believe him when he told her she would be his only mate, but hearing him refer to Jaylee as their child, or rather, pup as he put it, pulled on her heart strings. This man, this alien may have been exactly what she'd been asking for.

She had prayed for a change a new beginning when her husband died. She had thought that life had come with Ripley-Bishop, but that had turned into a nightmare, but Sonja knew her God. She knew that he was an in time God and this was the answer to the prayer she had been praying since her husband had left this world.

Her body was shifted and as he moved to the center of the bed and laid down. Sonja was still in his arms and repositioned herself. His soft purring caused his chest to vibrate against her cheek and the feel began to lull her to sleep. Finally, she felt as if she belonged some place since being on her own with Jay. They were truly getting to start over and there was no other way Sonja would have it.

* * *

**A/N: There you are. The beginning blossom of Sonja and C'bra's relationship. I hope you enjoyed. Reviews are appreciated. Feel free to flame if you believe it's needed. Thanks for reading.**


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